Fun6

www.blackhorsewesterns.org

Cowboy Bob's Trading Post #6

The Grey wolf.	The private lives of most BHW authors are closed books to their readers, but maybe it was always so. Only now are the facts emerging about Zane Grey (1875-1939), the archetype of the manly, outdoors adventurer and writer. His escapist novels, mostly westerns, have sometimes been declared flawed by their "pompous moralizing against sin". But in a new biography, *Zane Grey: His Life, His Adventures, His Women* (University of Illinois), Thomas H. Pauly tells that Grey was arrested at age 16 in a brothel and that there exists "an enormous, totally unknown cache of photographs taken by Grey of nude women" throughout his life. In many of the pictures, Grey is there, too, naked and engaged in sex. Pauly says the writer's long-suffering wife, Lina Elise "Dolly" Grey, knew of his affairs. "How could she not? Many were with relatives of hers or women she knew. At first hurt by them, she later came to regard them as part of her husband's makeup that would never change" Her summing-up of her husband's personality was: "The man has always lived in a land of make-believe, and has clothed all his own affairs in the shining garment of romance. . . ."

On far-flung horizons.	Mike Linaker (aka BHWs' Neil Hunter and Richard Wyler) misses no chance for a change of writing scene, writing Gold Eagle paperback epics for Canadian-based Worldwide. With three months to go to the deadline for an action-adventure novel of 95,000-100,000 words, Mike told Hoofprints, "I'm getting into the new book now. I've some mileage to make up, and it's really going to be hands on. I've been doing research on Iran, Jordan, the Bedouin tribesmen and their customs, language. If writing for Gold Eagle does nothing else, it certainly gives me an insight into different cultures. Who says writing isn't educational! Last year it was China, before that Russia, and the last one was set in the Colorado Rockies, with a smattering of Bosnia. . . ." We hope his imagination and the publishers will soon be luring Mike back to the Old West!

Out of ideas.	A group of A-list filmmakers — Clint Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Taylor Hackford, Paul Schrader, Peter Bogdanovich and Robert Towne — commented on the career and influence of a talented B-movie director in a TCM documentary, *Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That. USA Today said Eastwood and Boetticher shared at least one important trait: a love of the western. But speculating on what the paper called the genre's overall decline, Eastwood said, "People just aren't writing that many good western stories. A lot of [the ideas] have been exhausted.When I did Unforgiven* in 1992, it was a wonderful script. I thought, 'This would be a perfect last western for me.' " Writers be warned — be sure to add original elements to your next story of a lone rider's revenge or feuding cattlemen and nesters. Otherwise the Man With No Name isn't going to be interested!

Dry valley.	The British Telegraph newspaper sent travel writer Simon Horsford to Monument Valley on the border between Arizona and Utah, the location for many famous western movies and a favourite with director John Ford. Horsford found John Wayne's legacy everywhere. In the restaurant, they served "Wayne's favourite meal" of fried chicken, mash and gravy. In the nearby store, they had John Wayne Toilet Tissue. "Fortunately, eating one does not necessitate the use of the other," Horsford said. "In fact, the chicken supper was quite delicious -- even if it was washed down with a bottle of non-alcoholic beer." Seems you can't walk into the bar and demand a shot of rye either — there is no bar since the area is "dry".

Dead man's tales.	Bioanthropolgist Jerry Conlogue, of Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, told Discovery News about analysis of a mummy nicknamed Sylvester who was a 19th century cowboy. Since shotgun pellets blasted Sylvester's right cheek years before his death and he appeared to have survived a bullet to his collarbone, the "wild" in Wild West was confirmed. But his liver was in good condition — so not all cowboys drank as hard as they lived. The mummy was owned by a California doctor whose uncle was one of two cowboys who found Sylvester’s body in 1895 in the Gila Bend Desert. It was preserved with arsenic and probably went on the sideshow circuit as an "outlaw mummy". Conlogue's magnetic resonance and computerized tomography images showed no arthritis or degenerative disease. Teeth indicated an age between 35 and 40. "In Sylvester's chest, both lungs appear to adhere to the front of the chest wall. This may be an indication of some infective process in his respiratory system." Andy James, of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, Seattle, where Sylvester is displayed, was surprised. "My great grandfather started this store in 1899. I was led to believe a gunshot wound killed Sylvester. . . a bullet fragment entered his abdomen, bounced off a bone into his lungs and caused him to bleed to death."

No R & R for Hank.	Australian BHW writer Keith Hetherington liked the Chap O'Keefe article about Indians and their harsh treatment, War Paths and Peace Pipes. "Fascinating. As O'Keefe suggests, it's a bad mix really — good guys and bad guys on both sides. I've only ever met two Red Indians — and they were nearly black! It was at a place called Redcliffe near Brisbane when I was kid during the [Second World] War. My father got talking to them. They were with a Yankee outfit stationed at Toorbul Point just up the coast and used to hit Redcliffe in the old landing barges for R & R. Also met my first Mexican there, too, but all he could do was finger his gold crucifix and say his mother must be worrying about him. . . ." The hardworking author's latest book is *Madigan's Mistake, issued under one of his four BHW pen-names, Hank J. Kirby*.

Narrow views.	Clerkenwell House has been known for decades as the headquarters of BHW publishers Robert Hale Ltd. But it seems London EC1 has had another Clerkenwell House foisted upon it — a skinny, steel-and-glass erection not so much added to the city skyline as squeezed into a slot between two existing buildings. Why use the same name? We don't know, but the award-winning architect of the newer, just 11-feet-wide Clerkenwell House is Joe Hagan — believed to be the same who is introduced by David Whitehead elsewhere in this issue of BHE as a misguided critic of the Hale westerns on a TV show called *Burning Books*. Maybe authors should be doubly careful to include the "45-47 Clerkenwell Green" line when addressing their packages to the proper Clerkenwell House. What happens to misdelivered western manuscripts is a burning question we haven't pursued. . . .

Classic revisited.	James Mangold , director of the Johnny Cash biopic *Walk the Line, will remake the classic, 1957 western movie 3:10 to Yuma, which was based on a suspenseful Elmore Leonard* story. Mangold has looked over the yarn and found subtleties overlooked fifty years ago. He told showbiz paper Variety: "There are a lot of good-bad themes that were only touched on in the original. A lot of westerns are meditative, but this is a total struggle culminating in a showdown, which has the potential to be one of the great movie gunfights." The old B&W movie, directed by Delmer Daves, has been described by fans as "a distinguished psychological drama", and was largely played out in the claustrophobic setting of a hotel with the key players under mental and physical siege. The poor, family-man rancher (Van Heflin) and the bold, womanizing outlaw (Glenn Ford) each wanted what the other didn't have.

Mystery ingredient.	The latest Chap O'Keefe BHW, available from UK online retailers and on request at public libraries, is *Ghost Town Belles. O'Keefe tells us, "The scariest content in this tale isn't a conventional spook but the conduct of the belles' father, Mad Dungaree Dan. And the book's most conspicuous feature from a writing point of view is that it gives bigger play to a trademark feature I've inserted in every O'Keefe BHW from the first, Gunsmoke Night. It's rather like the cameo appearance by himself that director Alfred Hitchcock* used to wangle into every movie, but it isn't myself in disguise. Nor, indeed, a character at all. Just an item that will always be there to a greater or lesser extent in each book. In *Ghost Town Belles* it's prominent and it's woven significantly into the storyline." No prize to the reader who can tell us what it is! No prize, that is, beyond the author's congratulations and his gratitude for keen reader support.

	You're based in Bury St. Edmunds, England, it's March, you're writing your BHW — and you want to know what time the sun goes down in Tucson, Arizona, in June. What do you do without leaving your keyboard? Try http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/aboutastronomy.html . Tip: use Full List rather than Standard, so you can pick Tucson from a wider range of world cities. When you get to your city, click on the line that says Find sunrise and sunset times for other dates. . . . Info like this is passed on regularly among the easy chat at the no-fees, no-spam Yahoo Black Horse Westerns discussion group. New members always welcome!